Rebirth
by angelofdeath1119
Summary: With rebirth came a chance to die all over again.   Tragedy/Friendship/Romance. OC. Warning for war themes and a bit of cursing.
1. Chapter 1

Fullmetal Alchemist © Hiromu Arakawa**  
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><p><strong>REBIRTH<strong>

This kind of rebirth not only brought him back the chance to live again, but also the chance to relive the pain, the suffering, the glory, the struggle, the joy, the agony, and everything else that caught in between the web of thoughts and emotions that was called LIFE. But this prize didn't come free, and he paid a lot of debts to the world as he walked on the empty roads of dead things, familiar things, that he couldn't return to.

Edward and Alphonse wandered the streets of Munich, in search for adventure. Adventure they have been craving for. Their last adventure had been quite a while back, after all. 11 years had passed since then, since that event that crossed their paths again, when the border between Shamballa and _Earth _had been crushed together, and the balance was barely held by a little weak and vulnerable string.

Edward wore a loose red polo shirt that was a size bigger than he is, but he didn't care. He also wore faded loose jeans and a pair of rubber shoes that were white and red. Alphonse wore jeans the same style but a bit darker, rubber shoes that were black and white, and a white shirt with a child's artwork of a cat drawn on it. (Edward made sarcastic and hater comments when Alphonse picked the shirt from the cheap store, but Edward couldn't change his mind so he still bought Alphonse the shirt.)

Munich was bustling with life. And it could be easily seen just from where they stood; there was an apparent and beautiful image of life, and people who were enjoying it. Stores were open to offer candy and food and delight, children walking home from a tiring day at school, toddlers tottering and tattering all around, mothers chattering and offering rumours to be passed around. The life there, and the kind of life to experience, was somehow so diverse. Different nationalities with so many colors splattered around.

But despite a 1934 setting in what seemed to be a perfect place to grow up in that peaceful neighbourhood, a tense atmosphere wrapped around the setting thickly, and it was starting to suffocate Edward and Alphonse. They could sense it, those malignant, discriminating stares that stayed in the cold eyes of the policemen that stood in scattered places around the town plaza.

The stares were creepy. More than creepy, it was blood-chilling. Edward didn't like it at all.

Edward changed. Not much emotionally and attitude-wise, but surely he'd changed and matured physically and mentally. Well, he ought to, at 29. He didn't look too old though, and he was proud of that.

Alphonse meanwhile still radiated the younger glow and aura. He wasn't too much younger than Edward, but the age difference did a lot to stress his youth. He still had that child-like beat while he walked on the cobblestone paths—happy, jolly, and cheerful.

So whenever Edward would tease Alphonse about 'growing up', Alphonse would redirect the statement to Ed's height, which would push Edward into retreating in the silence of shutting up to save his face.

Eleven years had passed, and that was how they spent their days.

But still they hoped. They pored through an endless number of books, trying to find a solution, a clue, a reason. They looked for traces of magic and homunculi and a parallel world; they looked for alchemy and Liore and Risembool; and the world they left behind which carried the name of _Shamballa._

Edward thought they were just wasting their time and their energy, breaking their hearts. They closed the gates with the most absurd, unthinkable, no-alchemy, hands-on method they could think of—and it was so stupid yet so brilliant that they did not want to even remember. They were damn well sure they would ever bother to _try _to open the gate ever again—and no one would open it up for them from the other side.

And then all of it suddenly happened in a millisecond. Edward's fast golden eyes caught sight of something fleetingly as they walked through the park that seemed to be tainted in sepia. "Wait," he said firmly in a strong voice, although it was only a mere whisper as to not catch too much attention.

"Brother?" Al's voice was meek, weak, and on the worried side. His brother was tense as a rock—it was almost like he was ready to spring to action, like a cheetah on the hunt. And bust some dudes with his awesomer-than-awesome alchemy.

Well, everything above wasn't a lie save for the last sentence because it would be impossible.

Ed continued to scour for that figure that he saw, and didn't expect to see in that barren place he was forced to call 'home' because that was all he could return to. But he saw it. And it was like a gift from the gods he did not believe in….

It was _her._

"**WINRY!**"

Ed was quick to dash toward the blonde figure his mind shouted as extremely familiar; too fast that Alphonse didn't get the chance to warn him of the real _awkward _situation that'll happen if he did not—

"**WINRY!**"

Ed, in Al's eyes, suddenly shrunk into a ten-year-old. It was like they switched roles—now it was Edward who was hyper and childish, and Alphonse who looked at him from the shadows silently, enjoying the show.

The girl pushed Edward roughly away from her body, to break contact with his tight—and loving?—embrace. Ed's tears that welled in the corner of his eyes due to the joy were stopped from flowing upon seeing the unwavering irritation on the girl's flushed face.

"Win…ry?"

And that was when everything _finally _hit him hard like a train ready to run over his exhausted body. They were in a separate universe with the most familiar of faces who belonged to people they loved and cared for—but they weren't the people themselves.

Thus, the hug was not for her.

Definitely.

Because she wans't winry.

"Oh god—geez—did I—Oh god, I'm sor—"

**THWACCKKK!**

There went the throb of his head, and that comfortable, long-missed sound of solid hitting flesh, of being whacked with something hard. Only before it was a metal wrench, now it was a bag.

_Oh, would you stop dreaming Ed?_

"Oww—oww—oww…." He murmured softly, rubbing the part of his head that he felt turn tender. He kneeled to the ground, almost falling over to the grass to roll like a puppy, but he decided to keep composure and just sit there.

He heard Alphonse laugh softly from under a tree ten to twelve meters away. He frowned a little in displeasure. Alphonse was going to get a lot of scolding later..

Oh, but it was nice—the beauty of déjà vu.

Edward watched as the girl stood firm, apparently still waiting for an apology he owed her badly. He knew he had to; he wasn't stupid. Only he didn't know exactly how he was supposed to do that, and soon he started to murmur incoherently a mix of 'sorry' and 'I thought you were someone else.' Something like 'Seisg-o-ohmteto-rny-eheo-lrsueow-yeur', perhaps?

He could almost hear Al's scolding voice. _Get your ass out there and apologize!_

"Oh…oh… geez I'm so sorry, I thought you were someone else… I—I don't know how to make it up to you—dinner tonight maybe?"

Alphonse was left utterly surprised and speechless at his older brother's words of 'apology.' More than an apology, it was an invitation. And it wasn't an ordinary invitation; it was an invitation to _their house. _He thought Edward would continue on muttering and go all muffled and shy on his sorries but he just… He just invited a girl to dinner!

The first girl he'd ever invited over!

"Germans really have no respect!" the girl shouted loudly, causing the nearby policemen to glance at her, and Edward to tense respectively. She glared down at him with bluish eyes that were familiar to _hers, _but not the same.

"Shh, shh…." he said, slowly standing up—ignoring the still-throbbing pain—to be taller than her for around 2 inches. He put his hand on her shoulder defensively, still going on with his "shh" noises.

"Listen," he said. "I can see those men over there, and they're looking at you badly. They must've been offended with what you said," he explained with an amazingly tender voice. "You know what we can do now? Drag my arm and bring me to your home. We can get out of this safely."

"And then what? You're going to hurt me? Gag me? You're going to steal my home then give me over to them?" she asked rebelliously, digging her heels under the dirt of the grass. Her voice was a hushed whisper, so silent it almost sounded like a bare hiss to Edward.

From a distance, the police shouted to Ed, "Hey Mr. Elric! Beware of them Jews okay?"

Edward raised a hand, not bothering to face them—a signature gesture of his—and said, "Yes I will officer! This one doesn't bite, I think!"

With that he turned around to the girl again. The girl had this fearful look in her eye as she stared at him, almost pleading. She seemed to realize that her life was in Edward's palm already. "So you're Jew. I'll take you to your home, away from their stares," he said, ready to move.

But she continued to resist. "Germans are liars!" she hissed under her breath, but it was loud enough that Edward could hear. She looked down, eyes covered by the shadow of her blonde bangs. Edward wondered what they were hiding.

Edward only laughed a little at her remark. "I'm not exactly 'German.'"

"But you're one of them," she said, hissing the last word for stressing. She knew that he knew what she meant. It was something in his eyes.

The military-slash-police Nazi guards took a step toward the arguing couple, and Edward started to panic.

"No, I'm not. I don't even know what 'they' are. C'mon," Edward said.

The girl tried to take away Edward's hold, but he was too strong. "No!"

That time, Edward was losing patience, and time. An angry squad of policemen started to walk toward the girl and him. He knew what would happen if she continued to argue.

"Do you want to live?" he demanded. "Do you?"

"Yes!" she answered back angrily. "Of course I do! I'm all that's left!"

With that, Edward locked his arms around her. Her reaction was to close her eyes and want to fight back, but she knew what he could do. She knew that her life simply hung on the life that time, so she did not fight back. She simply couldn't.

"Sir, is there a prob—"

"No, we're fine, officer," Edward stated simply. He shifted position and put his left arm over her shoulders. She reddened. The officers stared at them, eyes narrowing slightly, before walking back away again.

Visibly relaxing, Edward called to his brother. "Al!"

He walked over, keeping pace as they walked away from the dangerous stares of the police. "Hi," he said with a smile. "I'm Alphonse."

"Lise," the girl answered with a faint, forced smile as she squirmed uneasily under Edward's heavy yet caring hands. (He couldn't let go yet, as the officers were still keeping a wary eye on both of them.) "Annelise Kirsten." She turned her face to Edward. Because of the position they had to put up, their faces were too close for comfort. But she played along with his game. "And what's your name, oh-great saviour who just saved me from a certain death?"

Edward turned to her with a childish glare that Alphonse had never seen on him in a long while. He didn't react or burst as Alphonse expected though—maybe because Edward knew of discipline; they weren't far enough from the Jew-hating police yet, after all.

"Edward Elric," he answered silently, trying his hardest to sound nice. All the good words stuck in his throat—it choked him. "Nice meeting you."

"Mmhmm…" she hummed in a sing-song voice. Her shoulders relaxed under his hold, and Edward was utterly surprised. "Now that we can be friends, I'd like to thank you for saving me." Her sudden change in attitude certainly shocked Edward. But somehow it did not bother him. He even liked it.

His mind drifted off. He remembered days past. He remembered Mapusa, the look-alike of that homunculus, and what he had told him years back when Shamballa was threatening to cross with Earth…

_Maybe what he'd said was right. And true, after all. Maybe that National Socialist Party_ _is **bad **news._

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><p><strong>AN: **Thank you for reading the story. XD

[[Edit: I already fixed the date. That was a fail. 1923+11 really is 1934. xD]]

AND NOW YOU ARE FINISHED. YOU MUST REVIEW! REVIEWERS GET VIRTUAL KISSES AND COOKIES FROM NONE OTHER THAN EDWARD ELRIC.

I send Loves :)


	2. Chapter 2

Fullmetal Alchemist © Hiromu Arakawa**  
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><p>Autumn winds made temperatures drop in Munich. It breathed the last droplets of the summer sun that died out in the fall. That breeze went through the open window, greeting her.<p>

_A nice cup of chocolate would do me some good_, she thought. Lise walked down the hallways that she had called home for the past seven months. The floorboards that were loose creaked slightly with her light steps. Every nook, every cranny, she already knew and became familiar with.

She reached the cool wooden floor of what used to be Alfons Heidrich's apartment; now Edward's. Standing in front of the kitchen sink, she washed a mug clean, wiped it, before pouring the pre-boiled water to mix with the powder she had put in.

She sat on the dining chair, staring blankly at the floor as she stirred mindlessly her mug of warm drink. The sun from the window made the flower vases and the books and the tables and everything else cast a shadow on the auburn floor. Her head spun. Edward never gave her a chance. The clinking of the steel spoon against the ceramic made her remember a memory, almost like it was only yesterday. She sighed, a bit nervously. Were those memories supposed to be good or bad?

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><p><em>It was the first time she'd walked in the apartment. The brothers had led her there after the narrow escape from the police. She was actually pretty surprised though. For an apartment with only two boys living in it, it was pretty neat and tidy, save for a few cluttered books and unwashed dishes by the sink. She was unable to hold her gasp.<em>

"_Brother, what did I tell you about washing the dishes?"_

_Alphonse massaged the bridge of his forehead, unamused. Edward, who had proceeded into falling into the couch, only answered his brother with a loud yawn. Lise could only watch as things unfolded in front of her eyes—a taste of how the brothers lived their days before._

"_I'm sorry, okay. I got a little caught up last night, that's all. I thought I got a lead, Al. …I was going nowhere. I just want to go home, you know that. I want both of us to go back home."_

_Alphonse, who had already made his way toward the sink to wash his brother's day-old dish chores, was stopped in the middle of the duty. A kind of sticky silence fell over them, and Lise could feel it sliming its way down her throat, choking her. The only sound that penetrated the eerie quietude was the sound of the water flushing out of the faucet into the steel sink, and their breathing. _

_Lise expected Alphonse to give out an epic remark, a sentence to block out or argue with his brother, but after what seemed to be an hour but actually half of a minute of pause, Alphonse resumed with what he was doing and Edward changed position to curl up like a fetus on the couch. Edward grabbed the nearest book on the table and buried his nose into it, while Lise just stood there, watching. Somehow she felt herself fade from view._

"_What do you want for dinner, brother?" _

_Edward looked up from the book he was reading and shrugged. "I don't know. Pizza?" _

"_But brother," Alphonse whined, "you know that's expensive. We have to find a cheaper food to eat." He wiped his hands on the kitchen towel and went on to sit on the chair in front of Edward. "I'll just… cook up some stew, is that all right with you?"_

"_Hey, anything cooked is good. You asked me what I wanted," Edward said nonchalantly, his eyes still tracing intensely the words printed on the book like a laser. He did not give any other answer to his brother._

_Alphonse walked over to the door where Lise still stood. "Lise! Come in and sit down, will you. Sorry for the mess. I'll just go over and buy some vegetables outside. Go on and make yourself comfy, okay?" He winked as he gently pushed Lise inside the room as he went out, closing the door with a slight thud. Lise saw Al disappear with his blond hair a few shades darker than Ed's flinging around with his movement._

_She shuffled silently inside where Edward had already managed to keep a sitting position on the love-seat couch. She walked over toward the window that overlooked the city. The sprinkled lights of blue, red, yellow, and white that she saw was a mask that the city wore to hide the bitter truth of the war that sprouted underneath its beauty. Sitting on the windowpane she breathed a sigh of relief. Is this a kind of saving?_

"_Hey Lise. Do you have enough clothes in your bag?"_

_The voice was Edward's, and in a way she was calmed by it. She looked at him, and she saw his face change from tense to soft the moment their eyes met. She shook her head lightly. She almost had nothing in that bag of hers. An old passport; a fake ID; a journal; a pocketknife; a thin jacket; short shorts that were originally pajama pants, only cut; and a few underwear—what more could she fit in that little brown knapsack that belonged to her five-year-old sister when she still existed in the world?_

_Edward nodded. "We can go buy clothes in the cheap-store tomorrow," he said. He put down the book back at the table. Lise had that feeling that he wasn't reading it seriously from the start on, it was only something to shield him from Alphonse's… wrath._

"_I want to bathe." It came out as a murmur but Edward heard it nonetheless. He saw her hug her shoulders awkwardly, her blonde hair falling like a curtain over her body. Her white shirt was a bit loose after all, and her skirt did little to shoo the cool of spring. _What had she lived on all this time?_ He asked himself._

_He stood up, and he felt her eyes study him curiously in silence. He walked toward his room and entered it, opened his cabinet and grabbed a towel. Looking at his clothes he grabbed a large-sized, checkered, long-sleeved polo shirt. He went through Al's stuff and rummaged around until he found the new knee-length pajama pants he had bought him last week. It was the most decent he could find. He closed the door and turned off the lights; and left the room._

_He walked toward her and handed her what he got. "I'm sorry, this is all I have for now," he said to her. She took the articles of clothing in her arms, and she got a sniff of a particular scent from it. Musk, and the countryside?_

"_Thank you…" she said. He pointed where the bathroom was silently, and she nodded again in thanks. Lise walked toward the bathroom, got inside, and closed the door so gently. Edward could only watch her disappear._

_Lise was so like _her. _And Edward had Lise. The problem is, Lise _wasn't_ her_, _and he seemed to be utterly pained with that bitter fact._

_Lise heard it though, how he voiced her thoughts. She heard him whisper, "_Dammit, why do you look like _her_?"

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><p>Thunder rolled in the distance, and Lise took a sip of her warm drink. She wondered what time the brothers would return from their leave.<p>

That morning, the brothers left her to 'do something important.' They didn't tell her exactly, but they said that that day, it was a special day. She understood that maybe they needed time alone, to juggle around with their thoughts again. She was the constant extra thing recently getting in their way, after all.

But she wondered what was so special with the third of October that they left so early, and haven't returned yet after ten hours.

She put the mug down and took a deep breath. She couldn't shrug the thought out of her mind, but somehow she knew she should have.

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><p>"<em>Cats! I mean, after everything I asked him, he said he wanted the one with cats!" Edward complained before he took another huge spoonful of rice and meat that Alphonse had prepared for supper. He chewed mock-angrily as Lise and Alphonse took another stomachful of laughter.<em>

"_Pffff—I'm sorry brother, I can't exactly do anything about it," Alphonse said, finishing his food. "Stop complaining, it's better that it's cats and not rats, right?"_

_Edward stood up, his plate cleaned and walked away from the table, headed toward the bathroom. "I'm going to take a bath now," he said, dismissing the argument._

"_Running away from your duties, huh, Ed?" _

_Edward froze on the spot, a chill of nostalgia and remembering running up his spine. Suddenly Lise sounded so much like _her _that he thought he was dreaming. He wasn't._

"_Go over here and do the dishes, will you?" _

_A while ago while Alphonse was cooking up the meal of meat and vegetables, Alphonse had started up a little storytelling session with Lise. Although he didn't name names, he had successfully given her the best way to intimidate his elder brother that Lise seemed so scared of. Hands on her hips and with a voice that almost threatened to throw a wrench, she could visibly see Edward shudder._

"_What the hell?" he cursed under his breath, turning back toward Alphonse and Lise. Alphonse had a huge grin plastered all over his youthful face. Lise… Lise melted into that person he'd been longing for. Suddenly, in that span of the five second silence, he thought he had _her _back. He didn't._

"_What do I do to not do the dishes…?" Edward whined. He was utterly lazy that night, and with that 'show' Lise had managed to put up (that he bet Alphonse planned well), he felt exhausted. All that hope flushed back into the drain._

"_Truth or dare," she said firmly. It was the first that came to mind—rock-paper-scissors was no option. She smiled to herself because her voice didn't falter like she expected it to. Everything was working out better than she thought it would._

_Edward nodded, and Alphonse cocked his head to the side curiously. It wasn't part of his plan. "Fine. If I answer you truthfully, you do the dishes. If I don't, then I do the dishes." _

"_Edward, tell me…" she said, taking a step toward him. "…Edward, who is _she?_"_

_Silence. Thick, goopy, bleedy silence. That was what took over the room and everyone else that was in it. Lise's heart stopped, or at least missed a beat, as she feared. She could almost hear the imaginary thoughts of her old rebellious self. _Oh my **god**. I think I did something wrong.

_Edward sighed. "Leave the dishes. I'll be back at them in a while." He turned his back and stalked toward Al's room. The door closed. Lise noted—his back was slumped, sad, sulking._

_A stream fell down from her blue eyes. It was all her fault._

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><p>The shower started to fall down from the drummed against the roof of the apartment, and the breeze that had blown earlier started to freeze the room. Lise stood and closed the windows shut tight to prevent the inside from getting soaked wet. She knew that a storm might pass soon, what with the winds.<p>

She had dropped her empty mug on the sink; she decided she'd wash it later. Walking lightly on the wooden floor with her delicate feet she sat on the couch and curled into a ball, letting the blanket Edward left on the couch from last night wrap around her like second skin. It smelled of him, a kind of mix of musk and sea and rain, and she relished the scent. To her it smelled like hope and what had saved her from that emptiness of losing.

Last night, she remembered waking up at 11pm to hear an angry "AUUUGHH" from outside her room. She peered from her door, wrapped in a blanket, to see Edward. He sat on the couch wearing a white shirt and grey boxers (his usual attire at night), with his hair hung loose, and books and paper scattered on the coffee table and floor. He was up on an all-nighter again, she knew, doing "research" to "get back home." She never understood what it was for though. She never asked and never bothered to wonder—she was already content with what she had. She wasn't asking for more.

At 3am she woke up. She slipped out of her blanket and tiptoed in her night-attire, a loose shirt and the knee-length pajama pants Alphonse had given her, to reach out from her cabinet a thick blanket she had purposely prepared earlier. She opened the door, trying not to make it creak, and saw that Ed was already fast asleep on the couch. He didn't have a pillow or a blanket; it looked like he just fell asleep out of tire. She walked toward him and draped the blanket over him. Immediately he wrapped it in his arms subconsciously. And as quickly as she came, she disappeared back into the dark of her room.

She wondered what Edward's problem was. It was heavy, she knew. But she did not push on, somehow she knew it wasn't right to. Not when she…not when she was only _Lise. _She was only _Annelise Kirsten, _what did she deserve to know in the Elric life?

Lise curled, letting the smell of the beloved elder Elric she seemed to be so attracted to, and fell into a daydream, hearing the rain thunder away.

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><p><em>She wanted to call out to him but she couldn't. She wanted to tell him sorry but she couldn't. Suddenly she had no power over herself as her knees buckled and her throat clogged, and all she could do was cry and cry and cry. Suddenly she felt so weak.<em>

"_Lise!" Alphonse cried. "Lise, don't… please. Don't." He knelt over her and hugged her shivering form, shuddering with the tears. "Please, it's not your fault, you didn't know. Don't blame yourself…" he murmured consolations to her ears but she wouldn't listen. She still blamed herself and her stupidity, her recklessness. The world was crashing down on her yet again._

"_But Lise if I were to answer your question," Alphonse started, and she stopped. She was curious to be exact, but she couldn't exactly show that at that moment. Alphonse pulled her hand up, but an arm still on her shoulder, he led her to the couch so they could sit. "Lise, I'd tell you that she… she was a very important figure in my life. And Brother's too. She was—is—everything to Brother, Lise. And the thing is, Brother almost had her, but he had to let her go again. And that's painful. Lise, I can't explain, she's everything. She's what pushed him up when he was the frail one at the start, and now I bet she's still the one bringing him up—memories of her, that is."_

_A sob started up to Lise's throat and she interrupted Alphonse. There was a short pause from the storytelling, but he continued. "But you know Lise, even if I can't tell you what she's like attitude-wise, and her importance to us, I can tell you what she looks like. Do you want to know?"_

_Blue was hidden in her bloodshot eyes, and Alphonse bit his lip nervously as she nodded. Somehow he didn't want her to know, but he knew she had to. "Lise… look at the mirror."_

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><p>"We're home!"<p>

Edward's loud voice and the shutting of the door behind him and Alphonse marked the minute the warmth flooded into the room—at last. Lise tucked herself deeper in the blanket, wanting to hide. She felt so weak, so useless. There it went again, the tears that welled in her eyes. She didn't know where she should put those.

Edward walked in first. He saw her first. She looked so frail and fragile under that sheet of blanket that was hers. His eyes grew wide. There was disbelief and surprise that nestled in his fierce golden orbs. He couldn't hide them. He went over to her behind the couch and asked, "Lise, are you alright?"

She turned to him, eyes already overflowing. He was even more shocked. She stood up and reached over for his collar, making him fall kneeling on the floor, at just the right height. She pulled him closer and buried her face in his chest, and cried and cried and cried, salty tears soaking her face more than what the rain would've.

Edward extended his arms and took her in. Yes. For that moment he would leave her in her moment of weakness to do what she needed to do to stand back up. He would give her a chance, this time.


End file.
